SHOCKER: Vic’s Bagel Bar Is Better Than Ess A Bagel
A few weeks ago, we reported that Vic’s Bagel Bar (on 3rd Ave. btw. 36+37th) had opened and was offering Midtown bagel lovers the option to customize their cream cheese (Cold Stone Creamery style.) Curiosity always gets the best of me, so of course I had to return to try one of their bagel monstrosities… the Backyard BBQ.
Lest you be confused, here are the steps:
It’s all very Pinkberry’ish, down to the small tubs of toppings… or should I say “mix-ins” because they don’t top your cream cheese as much as they’re, duh, mixed into your cream cheese, hummus, etc. While it’s more trendy-looking than most, it’s still a kosher bagel shop (crazy, right?) so you won’t find any meat here aside from lox.
I grew up on bagels from an awesome Windsor Terrace bagel shop and I thought the particular poppyseed bagel I ordered was comparable to one of Brooklyn’s best. Here’s why: The poppyseed coating was generous, but not so much where you can’t tell the bagel’s color because it’s smothered in seeds. Lunch’er Vick5y mentioned that when she ordered the Backyard BBQ, the cream cheese was “seriously squirting”. Not sure if bagel shop owner Vic took that comment to heart, but there wasn’t excess spillage in mine.
Now, let’s dissect this thing. There’s cut corn, small squares of cheddar cheese mixed with a stream of BBQ sauce, which was then folded into plain cream cheese. It’s such an obvious concept, it kind of blows my mind no one thought to offer customized cream cheese sooner.
In a way, it’s a bagel for hedonists if only because the bagel is no longer just a bagel – it’s a full, three dimensional experience. Not only are you so happy about the taste of cream cheese on a bagel, but there’s now CHUNKS OF CHEESE in your cream cheese. It’s sensory overload, but in a good way. I also happen to be a great fan of barbecue sauce so am wondering why other bagel shops haven’t added barbecue cream cheese to their selection. And if you can’t tell, it was a fat bagel with springy insides. You can ask for a more toasted – darker – bagel, but I want to keep my two front teeth so the bagel’s lightly toasted crust with dense, soft insides was happiness for me.
The Backyard BBQ came out to about $7 with tax which is totally pricey for a bagel, but kind of reasonable for a lunchtime sandwich. (There’s a $7 credit card minimum, which may be a pain for the cashless customer. Thankfully, I just made the cutoff.) Lunch’ers who can’t imagine forking over more than $3 for meatless food, you can still get your $2.50 bagel with cream cheese and $1.50 bagel with butter here. I’m an Ess-A-Bagel (on 3rd btw. 50+51st) devotee because it’s close to where I work, but I actually preferred Vic’s poppyseed to any I’ve had at Ess-A-Bagel. And, at Vic’s, they don’t randomly yell after me in Japanese, which is a nice change to dealing with bored, but well-meaning bagel men at Ess.
Vic’s Bagel Bar, 544 3rd Ave (btw 36+37th), 212-213-3900
Posted by Amy Cao at 11:45 am, April 7th, 2010 under Bagels, Kosher, Vic's Bagel Bar.
30 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
30 Comments
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agreed, but i DO LOVE a good homemade walnut, craisin, honey, orange zest,cream cheese on a cinnamon raisin bagel.
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$7 dollar bagel? Hey, let’s throw in a $5 cookie, a homemade burger from DocMcSteveP and sit around and talk about what the hell happened to this site.
There’s a midtown “lunch” for ya.
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Wondering why you think it’s crazy that it’s a kosher bagel shop? (Lox is fish, not considered meat, by the way.)
However, you lost me with this: “so am wondering why other bagel shops haven’t added barbecue cream cheese to their selection.”
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I added that when I edited it because I was super surprised! I take the blame…
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Whatever bug you have up your butt Mikey, leave me out of your comments, OK?
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Yeah, Mikey — ME too.
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I don’t know that all of the guys are well-meaning. You can’t fake that level of surliness.
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That’s pretty expensive?
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Opps, delete the “?” in that, meant to add a period.
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I’m Ron Burgundy?
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LOL
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i can not associate a bagel with lunch…it would ruin my morning bagels.
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even a bagel with ham, swiss and mayo…oh man.
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A breakfast bagel with cream cheese is fine. I can’t say I would be willing to pay $7 for a bagel lunch sandwich. For a few bucks more, you can indulge in a fancy sandwich like Cer Te or a burger of choice.
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truuuue. I dont think i have ever paid 7 bucks for a bagel sandwich…even with ham and cheese.
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davids bagels ftw
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they are expensive too and rude.
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blue flower makes pretty incredible bagels.
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what the heck is this “ftw” I see everyone writing all over the internet. I feel old and out of the loop like Cockchug.
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your googlefu is weak, grasshopper. cockchug ftl.
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On the internet in means “For the Win,” while in biker gangs it means “Fuck the World.” The prevelence of the former makes me understand the latter. I die a bit every time I read it. FML.
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Yeah, I knew the biker version before the internet version became popular. Every time I see it, I still think of the ‘original’ meaning. Kids today….
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Amy I like how you say “CHUCKS OF CHEESE”.
Also, I wish they had bacon…silly kosher.
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Thank you, thank you.
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Are you a Terrace Bagels girl? Love them!
So I can’t really figure out from Vic’s site, where do the bagels come from? Do they make their own or are they sourcing them from another bagelry?
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Yes, Terrace Bagels! You know them? I love them too. Vic’s makes their own bagels every morning!
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HUGE Terrace fan. :D I love their multigrain bagel and their everything bagel. Good to know that Vic’s makes their own. So many of the places around me carry H&H and I’m not a fan, too sweet in my book.
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Happy to see a more in-depth look at this place…I loved the whole wheat everything I had, and this post makes me want to spring the extra cash to try to mix-ins!
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I will NEVER go back to VICs bagel bar!!!!
I tried this place 3 times just to make sure I gave them a fair shot. It is, as we all said, extremely expensive, and lets face it, its just a gimmick…The part that put me over the edge was- the cashier charged me three different prices for the exact same thing I got each time.
When asking if the price was correct, she was rude and dismissive. There is no bagel that is worth that much money, however much they decide to charge you today!
Wow, interesting. I also grew up on Brooklyn bagels and haven’t had a good one in far too long. Not sure how I feel about the gimmicky toppings, but I’d try it once.
Thanks for the write-up!